Many women, when asked about their menstrual cycle, will answer that it’s “fine” or “normal,” but often those answers don’t paint the whole picture. Some women experience pain ranging from mild to severe, while others have very heavy periods. Some women’s periods are too light, some have irregular cycles, and for many there can be an emotional component leading up to their period that can be disruptive to their daily routines. Women often accept these discomforts during their cycles as something to be managed each month, or, if the problems become too disruptive, they seek conventional therapy, which has few options to offer other than hormone treatment.

Chinese medicine has long held that the health of a woman’s menstrual cycle is an important component of a woman’s overall health and wellbeing. Texts dating back thousands of years chronicle effective herbal and acupuncture therapies for gynecology, and the famous scholar Sun Simiao held it in such high regard that treatment for women’s health was the first item discussed in his famous text Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang (“Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand in Gold to Prepare for Emergencies”) ahead of the rest of his entries on general medicine.

Whether it is the beginning of a young female’s reproductive years, the middle, when she may be considering her fertility, or the later stage where new symptoms arise, Chinese medicine offers an alternative approach.